Have you ever followed a recipe to the T and found that for some reason, the cake doesn't rise, the dish doesn't taste right, or there is ALWAYS TOO MUCH (or TOO LITTLE) water?! There's actually a reason for that.

Briefly speaking, almost all recipes are simply approximations. Unless you know every single little detail about the environment and the ingredients that are being used, it is simply impossible to create the perfect recipe that will work for everyone. Are you using flaky salt? Sea salt? Iodized salt? Do you live closer to sealevel? or are you at a higher altitude? What time of year is it? Fall? Summer? All these questions must be accounted for when baking and cooking and it is this exact reason that maybe that recipe you found on Youtube has 4.9 stars and 100,000,000 views... but you tried to make it and it ended up like poo-poo. 

I have compiled a few examples of these questions to illustrate how there are multiple factors that play a role in the outcome of your dish besides from just ingredients and steps.

• Saltiness: Big flaky salts are less salty that smaller fine grains of salt. If you use the fancy salts people often use as garnish at the big famous Michilin Star restaurants, you might have to use more salt (by weight and volume) than the recipe recommends

• Flour: What type of flour are you using? All Purpose? Great. Now which type of all purpose? Flour grown in differing parts of the world have different characteristics. Example of differences The way their gluten strands are structured, how much protein is in the flour, how much of the endosperm or how little of it. Even between companies may be different. A cheaper brand may use more of the outer shell of the grain vs a more pricey brand may be able to clean their flour more properly.

• Anything premixed, prepackaged: Imagine you buy any bag of M&M's or Skittles. Does every bag have the same number of candies? Same amount of blues and greens and oranges and yellows? Definitely not. Even if it's by weight, how long has the product been out for? Maybe the water or oil slowly rose to the top leaving the top of the can less dense and the bottom more dense. (Imagine peanut butter. The oil rises to the top and even if you mix it, you'll never get it perfectly in equilibrium)
• Environment: How dry is the air in your house? The moisture in the air definitely plays a role in how well the flour absorbs water and holds on to it. Similarly, how cold is it? Often times, you'll see recipe videos say "until doubled in size" rather than saying "proof for 2 hours". The warmer the environment, the faster the proof. 

In cooking, you should always continue to judge the dish and change accordingly based on your current situation. I have a few recipes on this site that are base lines, but always cook and bake according to what you think. Scales can be inaccurate, volume measurements can change according to what country, and you have to account for your dish that you're making now, not one you made 2 years ago as the settings may have changed. This is also makes cooking a lot more fun. Instead of constantly looking at a recipe and referring to it, you lose that step and can cook by feel. You can adjust to your preferences; "I like a yeastier bread, I'm going to add more" or "This author's taste is slightly too bland for me, I'll add more sauce or salt to their dishes". Once you understand this and get a feel for it, you'll be a pro in no time!... Not to say I'm a pro or a chef. Is anyone reading this? lol.